Can you still send strong messages when you have rolled out the red carpet and chilled the champagne for a state dinner? China’s Xi Jinping feted in the French capital for his first visit to Europe since 2019, this despite trade tensions, spy scandals and insistence that he isolate Vladimir Putin over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. How much has changed since a year ago when Emmanuel Macron was accused of lax messaging on human rights and Taiwan when he traveled to Beijing?